Ange Postecoglou, working as a World Cup pundit on ITV, used his airtime during the Netherlands’ 2-2 draw with Japan to publicly call out Micky van de Ven for the defensive error that allowed Japan back into the match. Not a private word. Not a quiet text. Live television, alongside Gary Neville and Roy Keane.
As we covered when the tournament began, Postecoglou has taken up a punditry role on ITV for the World Cup, which is an entirely reasonable thing for a recently sacked manager to do. What makes it slightly less routine is when the player under the microscope is one he signed, coached, and repeatedly praised as a cornerstone of his Tottenham rebuild.
Keito Nakamura’s equaliser for Japan came after Van de Ven failed to hold the defensive line with the rest of the Dutch back four. Daizen Maeda was in an offside position, but Van de Ven staying deep kept him onside. Postecoglou, in post-match analysis, left no ambiguity about where the blame sat:
“You can see here, they’ve been running in that half-space really well the whole game, and then it comes out to Nakamura. The Dutch defence comes out, but then Van de Ven stays in, so when he strikes the ball, Maeda is in an offside position, but you can see Van de Ven on the left. As the ball comes out, the rest of the back four moves out, he stays in, and they get back into the game.”
Precise, forensic, and delivered by the man who pushed hardest to bring Van de Ven to Spurs from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2023. The irony that the error involves exactly the kind of high-line timing Postecoglou spent two years drilling at N17 is not lost on anyone paying attention.
To be fair to Postecoglou, he is not wrong. And there is something honest about an analyst calling it straight regardless of prior relationship. But it is still a choice – a very public one – about a player Van de Ven described as recently as the World Cup window as someone whose methods he still believes in entirely.
Van de Ven’s standing at Spurs makes this worth noting beyond the TV clip. Interest from clubs including Manchester United has circulated, and with his pace and defensive profile attracting serious attention, he remains one of the few genuinely world-class assets we have. A bad tournament won’t change that. One high-profile clip of his former manager pinning a goal on him probably won’t either.
Van de Ven will have clocked it, though.
